Children’s Literature Resource Guide

Children’s Literature Resource Guide

A comprehensive guide for parents, teachers, and kids

Introduction

Through reading literature, kids can explore new worlds, contemplate new ideas and develop empathy by seeing the world through the eyes of others. Reading sparks the imagination and helps kids gain cultural knowledge, emotional intelligence and social development. And because reading is so important, we created this Guide to Children’s Literature Resources. Inside, you’ll find 40 individual resources for kids, teachers and parents, including websites that offer texts to read online and literature-themed games; resources for teaching literature to kids; and resources that help guide parents as they work to foster a love of reading in their children.

PBS is a leader in kid’s entertaining educational programming with shows such as Word Girl, Elmo and Super Why. Give your child the opportunity to strengthen his reading skills with a variety of reading games, based on PBS show characters, offered on the site.

From Scholastic comes this summary of research and expert opinion, which emphasizes the importance of providing frequent access and exposure to books when children are at a young age. In addition, emphasis is placed on offering a variety and choice of materials and the opportunity to have books read aloud to the developing reader.

Developed by the Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA), this literacy resource guide helps families and educators discover the vast amount of children’s literacy resources available through the U.S. Department of Education.

This 64-page guide offers a summary of research by the National Reading Panel based on how to teach children to be successful readers. Suggestions for best instructional practices are made in the areas of phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, comprehension and vocabulary.

This guide, from Reading Rockets, offers practical advice and tips for parents on how to raise a child who likes to read.

Children’s Literature Teaching Resources

When you teach children’s literature, you not only help children develop literacy skills, you also foster within them an appreciation of all that literature has to offer. Browse the links below to find ideas, lesson plans and activities that will help you engage your students.

Book reviews for children’s books, curriculum implementation ideas and professional topics are what you’ll find at this site created by the late Carol Hurst who was a well-known lecturer, author and language arts consultant.

Enjoy free, kid-friendly news stories that are perfect to use with students in grades 2 to 8. The authors provide the appropriate vocabulary and context for every news story they write and include critical thinking questions.

Improve the reading fluency of your students in a fun way. Children’s author Aaron Shepard offers free access to an acclaimed series of Reader’s Theater scripts that you can use in your classroom. He also offers tips for making the most of Reader’s Theater with your students.

In the “Lesson Plans for Educators” portion of this site, find over 70 links to lesson plans and discussion questions for various children’s books such as James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl and Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel.

This site is an online video library that features Screen Actors Guild (SAG) members, such as Kevin Costner and Christian Slater, reading children’s books aloud. Lesson plans and activity guides are available to download for each book.

Self-sacrifice, service and helping others are traits that all children should have the opportunity to learn. Check out this link for examples of children’s books that offer examples of service within their stories. Also included for each book: grade level recommendations, summaries and a peek inside.

From Annenberg Learner, these literature interactives can help your students learn the elements of a story. In addition, literature interactives are available for teachers such as how to assess comprehension or annotate text.

This is like one-stop shopping for all your study material needs. Find free book notes, study guides, book and chapter summaries and more from this literature study guide search engine that has links to the materials from more than 23 online providers.

Children’s Literature Blogs

This mom’s mission is all about getting kids to read. She features reading tips, learning activities and fiction and non-fiction book reviews and recommendations to help other parents instill a desire to read in their children. Her book reviews are based on books for children, tweens and teens.

This blog is devoted to the review of children’s board books, otherwise known as tough little books that are full of brilliant colors, cute illustrations and tiny words. Discover information about delightful, almost indestructible books that your toddler will love.

Jen Robinson may have a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering, but she has always had a love for children’s books and sharing that love with others. Her blog features tons of insightful book reviews for children’s books and thoughtful posts that can inspire people to place a high value on encouraging children to read.